


A Minor Afterlife Crisis

by Green_penguins



Series: Spoilers: Willie Dies [5]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Alex Mercer/Willie-centric (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex and Willie meet, Attempt at Humor, Fluff, Kinda, M/M, PTSD, Willie crashes into the ground and it reminds him of his death, Willie fell hard for him, Willie-centric (Julie and The Phantoms), but its like really short, i did this instead of my fifteen missing assignments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:56:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29837766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Green_penguins/pseuds/Green_penguins
Summary: Once all his duties were completed, Willie was allowed to skate around wherever he pleased until his next performance or until the sharp tug in his chest alerted him that Caleb had another job for him.It wasn’t the worst gig in the world, and Willie was content with that.Or at least, he was until Alex Mercer came into his life.-or-Willie was fine with being vaguely unhappy until he literally fell for a certain gay ghost drummer
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: Spoilers: Willie Dies [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2190132
Comments: 2
Kudos: 36





	A Minor Afterlife Crisis

**Author's Note:**

> Yayyyy! We finally get to the good Willex content. I'm so excited guys.

There were times that Willie regretted joining the Hollywood Ghost Club. After being a member for over 40 years, the glamor was wearing thinner and thinner every day. There was an oppressive tension in the air during rehearsals and Caleb kept sending him on more and more “special projects”. He genuinely enjoyed the performances, and he loved dancing and interacting with lifers, but his interactions with Caleb were filled with thinly veiled threats and he winced at each new ghost who joined. 

There were several cords tying him to the living world now. The strongest of which being his tie to Caleb, which was thick and heavy and oppressive and so, so different from the gentle connection he still had to Angie after all these years. She went by Eva now, and had since his death, but he couldn’t quite keep from calling her by her old nickname. He visited her every now and then, watched her with her wife and their son and his children, skated around her museum and smiled at the painted skateboard that hung in her office. 

Once all his duties were completed, Willie was allowed to skate around wherever he pleased until his next performance or until the sharp tug in his chest alerted him that Caleb had another job for him. 

It wasn’t the worst gig in the world, and Willie was content with that.

Or at least, he was until Alex Mercer came into his life.

He’d been cruising down the street on his board, making comments to the lifers he passed through about their outfits and generally making a fool of himself, as was his habit. He laughed as the surface thoughts of the last lifer he’d phased through faded from his head. 

He crashed into someone and landed flat on his back, his helmet hitting the ground with a loud crack. His eyes opened and for a moment all he could see were the bright lights of a truck and all he could hear was the honking of a horn and he couldn’t breathe. He squeezed his eyes shut and let out a low groan. Someone else groaned beside him. 

He’d been alone that day. The sun had been out and he’d been alone, but right now the sun was behind the clouds and there was a warm arm next to his own. He took a breath and opened his eyes, looking to his right and seeing a blonde with a fanny pack laying next to him. He was fine. This was fine. 

He rolled to his feet, picking up his board “Ah, damn,” he ran his thumb over the small dent in the underside, “Oh, you dinged my board.”

“I dinged your board? Dude, you ran me over,” Fannypack accused, taking a step forward, “You're lucky I didn't…” he stopped abruptly. Willie flinched slightly, leaning back. Wait, was Fanny going to say ‘die’ right there? 

Willie furrowed his brow and watched Fanny’s whole demeanor shift abruptly. When he spoke again it was much softer. “Y-Y-You... you... you ran me over,” he repeated, but this time it was more confused than angry, “You're a… you’re a ghost?” 

He raised his eyebrows and unbuckled his helmet “Um. Yeah,” he answered, still vaguely jittery from whatever the hell that was earlier. He took off his helmet and shook out his hair “Ever since I learned the hard way that skating in traffic was bad.” 

Willie brushed his hair behind his ear and watched Fanny’s wide eyes dart to his earring and then back to his face, mouth falling open slightly. He blushed and ducked his head. Yeah okay, Fanny was kinda cute.

“Hey, sorry I, uh, smashed into you,” he illustrated the smashing with his helmet, “Thought you were a lifer and I'd just like, pass right through.”  
Fanny paused, clearly confused, “Uh, a lifer?” he asked, leaning forward as if being closer would make it make sense. 

So he had come back recently. Wille softened. He remembered those days. “Yeah that's what we call people” he gestured vaguely at the lifers surrounding them “who are…living.” Fanny nodded hesitantly. “You're new to this whole ghost thing, aren't you?” 

Fanny gave an awkward chuckle “Yeah. Is it that obvious?”

Willie made a face “Totally.” He smiled when Fanny gave another short laugh, then held out his hand. “Hey, I'm, uh... I'm Willie.”

Fanny took it, “I’m Alex.” His hands were warm and soft, with strange callouses on the inside of his fingers. Maybe from carrying something? That was a nice name, Alex. He had a nice face, too, very open and expressive. ‘Stop it Willie, he might not even like guys’ Though the choice of a light purple shirt and jeans jacket was a good sign.

Willie looked around, “So, um, what brings you to Hollywood, man? You sightseeing? Picture with that, uh, Marilyn girl?” he asked, pointing a thumb at her over his shoulder and wiggling his eyebrows.

Alex didn’t even glance over. “Uh... Actually, I was having a minor afterlife crisis,” he shifted on his feet “so, you know, just clearing my head… until you tried to crack it open.”

Willie gave a full bodied laugh at that. So he was cute and funny. “I did pancake you, huh?” he grinned. Alex kept shifting on his feet, clearly uncomfortable, and Willie slipped back to seriousness. “So, minor afterlife crisis?” he prompted apologetically.

“Yeah, I just... I just keep freaking out about everything, you know?” he leaned in conspiratorially, “Shouldn't we be in Heaven or something?”

He leaned his head back in question “Who's we?”

“Oh, uh, me and my bandmates. We all died.” Alex said bluntly.

“Now, that's tragic, man. You guys had some kind of accident, or…” he trailed off uncertainly. Death could be a touchy subject with some ghosts.

“Yeah.” Alex agreed, voice far higher than it had been previously. The death question was probably a bad call. “Yeah, you could... you could say that.” he hesitated, “We ate some bad hot dogs.” 

“Whoa! No way.” he responded, forcing his laughter down. The poor thing looked nervous enough. “Weirdly, that is what happened to Mozart,” said the lying liar who lied.

“Wow. That's actually comforting. Thank you.” It was also completely untrue, but Alex looked so much more relaxed that he couldn’t bring himself to feel bad about it.

“Hey, do you mind if I ask you a couple more questions?” Alex rocked forward again.

“That's kind of your thing, isn't it?” Willie smiled, looking him up and down, “All right.” he set his board down and hopped on. “You just gotta keep up.”

“Hey!” Alex called as he grew farther away, “Um... wait up!”

Willie put his helmet on over his hair as a wide grin spread over his face. He felt tingles in his stomach, like the feeling of teleportation but warmer and gentler. He turned back to make sure he wasn’t getting too far ahead, but Alex wasn’t there. 

Oh, why did that hurt.

He looked forward again and was surprised to find Alex running beside him. That was awfully precise for a new ghost. He hadn’t even heard the soft whoosh of teleportation. “Woah, that was pretty impressive!” He complimented enthusiastically. 

“Really?” Alex looked at him with sparkling eyes and a small smile and he was pretty sure his heart skipped a beat. This was especially impressive seeing as he had been dead for over 40 years. 

He gave an awkward cough and turned. “Yeah” 

They kept going until Willie spotted a bench coming up ahead and pointed it out to him. Alex nodded in understanding and teleported onto the bench, sitting on the backrest with his feet resting on the seat. That was another tic in the ‘queer’ box. 

Willie smiled and joined him on the backrest. “Are you sure that you’re a new ghost?” he teased.

“Well I, I guess that depends on the way you define ‘new’. Why do you ask?” Alex tilted his head curiously, his light hair falling over his face. It looked very soft. He kind of definitely wanted to find out. There was an awkward pause. Right, he was supposed to be answering questions, not ogling the new ghost.

“Um, it’s just that you’re really, like, precise with your jumps. It took me years to get that good.” Willie briefly weighed the level of embarrassment he would suffer with the possibility of making Alex laugh again. He continued. It was for a worthy cause. “I mean one of the first times I jumped I ended up standing half-way through my own coffin.”

Alex made a little choked sound and then he was laughing openly, a hand to his mouth and his head tucked into his shoulders. “That’s, that’s so, oh my god that’s so horrible” he wheezed. “Why am I laughing so hard? It’s not --not funny, it’s awful.”

“It’s a little bit funny” Willie reassured him through a few giggles of his own. “But do you see what I mean?” he asked, allowing sincerity to bleed into his words “You’re a natural.”

“Well” Alex said modestly, Willie nudged him with his shoulder and he blushed. “I guess I’m not so bad at this ghost stuff after all.” he preened dramatically, then straightened “I do still have questions though.”

“Right, yes” Willie agreed, “Lay ‘em on me.”

It was interesting to be the one explaining everything instead of the other way ‘round. Back when he’d first joined Caleb’s club he had bombarded all the ghosts who would stands still long enough to listen with question after question. He got a lot of solid answers and even more vague shrugs, but he’d figured a few things out on his own.

They talked about the Void, and how a lifer touching a prized possession would summon a ghost from it. They brushed on basic ghost abilities and Willie showed off a little with his Technokinesis. Was it too much to set off every car alarm on the block? Probably, but when he did it Alex looked at him in pure awe and Willie would’ve set off every car in a square mile if it meant Alex would look at him like that. 

They talked about pop culture. About some of the things Alex had missed when he was stuck in the Void for 25 years. Willie couldn’t hope to catch him up on all of it now, but maybe he’d be able to go into more detail in the future. 

They talked about ties with lifers, objects and other ghosts, how they differed and how to form them. Lifers were the easiest to bond with, all you had to do was to stand in them or phase through them repeatedly. Objects had to either have belonged to you in life or have become important to you after death. 

Bonds between ghosts could be tricky. There were, of course, deals like Caleb’s where one soul was taken into possesion by another. He didn’t mention those. There was also a lighter, more subtle bond that was often used between friends or lovers. Alex lit up at that, explaining that he and his bandmates could always tell where eachother was and somehow just knew when something was wrong. 

“That sounds about right to me.” Willie agreed easily, “You must have been really close when you were alive, most bonds don’t last in death. They have to be re-formed and strengthened regularly.”

“How do you form them then?” Alex asked, leaning forward eagerly.  
“Ghost to ghost bonds take the longest to make. It really depends on how connected the ghosts are, how much they care about each other. The only way to form one is extended physical contact. It’ll take longer if you’re just aquaintences rather than friends or just friends rather than family. Stuff like that.” He explained, fiddling with the cords of his bracelet.

“So blood relations form bonds faster than just friends?” Alex asked, brow furrowed adorably.

“When I say family, I mean the people that are too close to be friends, but aren’t, like, romantic or anything,” Willie clarified “adopted or found family works just as well as people you share blood with.”

Alex nodded, face clearing. Then his brow furrowed again. “What kind of physical contact do you mean? Like are we talking pricked fingers and blood oaths or just like, really long hugs?” 

“So fun fact, ghosts don’t actually bleed, so blood oaths aren’t really a thing.” Willie shifted a bit closer and nudged Alex’s leg with his own. “And it could be anything. Holding hands, hugging, cuddling. Generally the more contact the better, but anything goes, really.” 

Alex nodded thoughtfully, apparently satisfied with that answer. His fingers were still drumming on his knee though, and he looked like he was building up to something.

“Any other burning questions or comments?” Willie prodded, smirking gently.

“I mean, it's just, it's just so random, you know? That we disappear for 25 years, and then Julie plays our CD, and then bam! We're back.” He accentuated his point with a gestured explosion before his hands went back to fiddling with his fanny pack and twisting his rings.

Willie nodded, “It's kind of funny, right? You thought when you died you'd get all these answers, and now you just have more questions.” 

“Hilarious.” Alex said dryly, and Willie chuckled at his sarcasm. 

A lifer wearing a fuzzy brown dog costume sat down on the bench and Alex scooted closer to Willie to avoid him. Dog man took off his head and pulled a sandwich from somewhere in its depths. They shared a look and burst into giggles.

“Why did he… nevermind, I don’t want to know”

“So, who's this, um... Julie?” Willie asked in a probably overly casual tone. 

“Oh, she's the girl that discovered us.” Alex said offhandedly, then leaned in and gesticulated wildly “Did I mention she can see us? You understand my whole freaking out thing?”

A wave of ice washed down Willie’s spine. “A lifer can see you?” 

“Yeah, man. No, it gets crazier. All right?” And it was clear that this was the moment he’d been waiting for, the question that had been bothering him the most. “This morning, we're playing music with her, we become visible to her entire school.”

“Whoa, I've never heard of that happening before.” Willie paused, trying to think of a possible reason. “Maybe this Julie's connected to your unfinished business.” he suggested.

“Mm-hmm. Yes. Totally.” Willie could practically feel the sarcasm building as Alex continued. “I would completely agree if I had any clue what you're talking about.”

“Right,” he looked down at his hands. How to explain this without making it unnecessarily confusing. “Um... unfinished business. It's why people become ghosts when they die. There's still something they need to accomplish, and once they complete it” he clicked his tongue for effect “they can cross over.”

“Okay,” Alex said slowly, “So how do we figure out what our unfinished business is?”

Willie gave one of those distinctly unhelpful, vague ghost shrugs that he’d always hated recieving. “I don't know. You know, some ghosts never do. I still haven't. But, you know, I'm not too worried about it. I’ve got a bunch of different ties so I won’t go all wraith, and being a ghost lets me do my favorite thing,” he spread his hands “skate anywhere I want without getting busted.” 

“I mean, bro, when I'm not skating here or the beach, I'm skating Justin Bieber's empty pool.” he finished with a self-satisfied smirk.

“Wow.” said Alex, sounding completely lost. “Who's that?”

“You seriously have so much to catch up on, bro. Dang!” he laughed, bumping against Alex’s shoulder. There was a sharp tug in his chest, and his smile dropped suddenly. He forced a smile and stood up “All right. I'll catch you later, hotdog.”

“I really don't like that nickname.” Alex complained “It's how I died!” he called, but Willie skated away with a goofy smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to stick pretty close to the canon dialogue, but I added a couple words here and there and of course wrote the bridge between our two Willex scenes. 
> 
> I've added Bonds to this series because I feel like there's no other way for the boys to always know where each other are and to show up when Julie's playing that last night at the Orpheum. This also can help explain how they can just summon their instruments --which is dope by the way-- as well as clear up the way Alex always seems to just... know where Willie is??? Like he knew to show up at some random ass beach on the spot, because we know that he wasn't planning to bring the boys to see Willie so it's not like they agreed to meet at that time and place.
> 
> Like my additions? Hate them? Feel free to yell at me in the comments. I'm always up for a talk on the intricacies of ghosthood.


End file.
